Multiple outlet blower assembly



Oct. 5, 1943. E. B. WILLIAMS 2,339,933

MULTIPLE OUTLET BLOWER 'ASSEMBLY Filed Nov. 14, 1941 INVENTOR. EDMOND BRYAN WILLIAMS BY I T TOR/164 Patented Oct. 5, 194.3

signor to The Torrington Manufacturing Co., Torrington, Conn., a corporation of Con-- necticut Application November 14, 1941, Serial No. 419,113

2 Claims; (01. 230-47) This invention relates to improvements in multiple outlet blower assemblies, and more particularly to an improved construction of housing, and combination thereof with a blower wheel particularly adapted for use, for example, in units required to supply air to different zones, under differing pressure conditions. Atypical usage of such units is found in automobile body heaters and defrosters.

With the advent of closed vehicle bodies, such as prevalently used on automobiles, the number and variety of types of different designs of heatandwhich will serve without attention or repair over-a long period of operation.

A'further object of the invention isattained I in a more compact heater or blower unit for the ing units have been greatly enhanced in an attempt to provide at low initial cost, and with minimum energy consumption and noise, an adequate supply of Warm air for moderation of temperature in the vehicle body. The service demands of units of this general type now include also the provision of a stream or streams of heated air for the purpose of windshield defrosting or the like, the air'supply for the latter service generally general purposes noted, the space economy re sulting from present design being particularly reflected in a reduced axial dimensional requirement of the assembly.

Still further objects and advantages'are attained in certain advantageous structural details making for sturdiness and compactness of assembly, as well as reduction in costs.

The foregoing and numerous other objects will more clearly appear from the following detailed description of an exemplary embodiment of the invention, when considered in connection with the accompanying drawing; in which: 3

Fig. 1 is a vertical section of a heater and blower unit to which the present improvements are being delivered through a substantial length of conduit, as by the blower assembly, the defrosting air being delivered under a moderate pressure head.

The present invention has as its general object, the improvement of efficiency and enhanced quietness of operation of a blower housing for the general purpose noted, in such manner that substantially the full output of the blower wheel is utilized efficiently and quietly.

A further object of the invention may be noted 5 as an improved low cost housing construction for units of the type noted, which serves to increase, when compared with prevalent designs of blower for comparable purposes, the volume of air delivered per unit of time, and which serves greatly to augment the velocity as well as the volume of air delivered for defrosting purposes; the defrosting equipment being served by the same displacement member such as the blower wheel which delivers heated air for the warming of the vehicle body space.

A further object of the invention is attained in an arrangement of multiple-purpose housing sections fora centrifugal blower wheel, such that one or a pressure section may beutilized efficiently, without starving a companion section or sections utilized to deliver air for vehicle body heating pu poses. 1

Still another object is attained in a blower or heater unit; which requires but a minimum number of parts, each of which is simple and sturdy in construction, may be fabricated from stock'- materials by only inexpensive tooling equipment,

applied, a driving motor for the centrifugal blower wheel being herein shown inside elevation; Fig. 2 is a horizontal sectional elevation of portions of the device as viewed along linesl-Z of Fig.1; Fig. '3 is a horizontal sectional elevation of the unit of Fig. 1 as viewed along line 3-3 thereof, and Figml'is' an additional horizontal sectional elevation of the unit of'Fig. 1 as viewed alongline 44 thereof. I

For brevity of description and in keeping with certain embodiments of the improvements heretofore manufactured, the figures of the drawing illustrate a horizontal type of heater and blower' unit, 1. e. one in which a centrifugal blower wheel operates in a horizontal plane or planes, and is actuated by a'vertical-shaft'motor, and in which a water-supplied heater core is disposed substantiallyin a horizontal plane. It will be understood, however, that such illustratiion does not negative an equal facility for'embodying the structuralimprovements of the blower housing and wheel, in a blowen-or heater unit of a type in which the core, for example, is disposed vertically and'themotor' shaft arranged horizontally, or'at any other suitable angle.

In referenceto the drawing, by suitable coordinating characters, it'may be noted that the outer housing of the unit is comprised of a bottom or lower element I0, and a side wall or walls II and 12, These housing portions are conveniently formed 'of sheet metal of suitable gauge, and the housing is preferably, of itself, of open top construction, the top of the housing or one end thereof being occupied and virtually closed as by a circulating radiator or core element l3.

Although the housing H), H, I2 is shown as being of a virtually square or rectangular section,

the present improvements may equally wellzbe embodied in a housing in which the portions II and I2 are curved, and the side walls thus serve to define a circular or oval structure, or being of other suitable shape as desired.

It will further be observed that the present improvements consist essentially of a multiple- -function blower and housing assembly, and that the stream of inflowing air. The exact construetion and arrangement of spaces or cells in the core are not material to the present improvements, any suitable form of core member or heat exchange structure being serviceable in this zone of the unit.

When the source of heat is the usual hot water from the cooling system of an automobile engine, a pair or more of conduits or connections for the water may be employed, these being indicated at l4, say for the inlet, and I5 for the outlet or re-. turn.

Transversely bridging the walls I and I2 of the outer housing is a horizontal partition 20 conveniently provided with an upturned flange or flanges 2| along its perimeter, by which it is.

assembled as by welding, riveting or the like, so as to derive its support from the walls H and I2. In case a rectangular outer casing or housing is utilized, the front and rear walls thereof may be located as shown in Fig. 3 for example, and indicated at 22 and 23.

The horizontal partition 20. is characterized by a central, preferably circular aperture, defining an inlet eye to the wheel housing proper and indicated at 24. By preference the eye 24 is particularly defined by a, downturned, convexly rounded flange portion 25 which may be formed by pressing or spinning to bring the lowermost margin of the flange close to, and preferably such that it has not much more than an operating clearance with the inlet end of the wheel.

The opposite end of the wheel housing proper is constituted by a substantially horizontal partition element 25. This is assembled in place in the outer housing in any suitable manner as by flanges (not shown) and is located for themost part in the plane of the opposite end of the blower wheel, hereinafter described. The partition or plate element 26 is preferably provided with an aperture 21 circular in form and of a diameter closely approximating the greatest peripheral diameter of the wheel. As best appears from Fig. 4, and as also indicated by the section of Fig. 1, the plate 28 is specially formed as by pressing or spinning, so that it is shaped to form one or more scroll wings, each of which lies in a curved plane, the greater part of which lies parallel to, but of course located outwardly from the axis of the blower wheel. This scroll wing formation will be hereinafter more particularly described, but is indicated generally at 30.

A third partition element, shown as horizonta in the example illustrated, transverse y bridges the outer casing or housing [0, H, l2 and is indicated generally at 3|. This partition also is provided with a central circular aperture, the defining edge of which 32 extends entirely around the periphery of the blower wheel and close thereto, preferably having only a safe operating clearance therewith.

It will have appeared from the arrangement of the three cross partitions, viz. 20, 26 and 3|, that the housing portion about the blower wheel is divided into sections, shown as two in number. For reasons later appearing, these may be re ferred to respectively as an upper and larger, or heater section 34, and a smaller, more shallow defroster or pressure section 35.

For a purpose similar to the provision of the scroll wing 30 in and partly defining the defroster section 35, section 34 is similarly provided with one or more scroll wings. The trends of these best appear from Fig. 3, wherein they are indicated at 36 and 31 respectively, it being observed that each scroll wing in the heater section has its innermost end located relatively close to the periphery of the wheel, such end on the wing 36 being indicated at 40 and the corresponding end of wing 31 being indicated at 4|. The scroll wing 36 actually terminates in an outer end 42 and the corresponding end of wing 31 at 43. The merger of these ends with the walls 22 and 23 of the housing serves virtually to continue or prolongthe functional effect of the scroll wings, outwardly to a zone of air discharge from the sides of the casing.

As well known, the discharge port or ports, the two thereof for the heater section of the housing being indicated at 44 and 45 respectively, may be provided with suitable dampers or multiple louvers to control the extent, direction or both, of the air discharged directly into the body of the. vehicle asfor heating purposes.

Although the usual installations for automobile heating purposes require only a single defroster connection for supply of heated air, this being exemplified by the fragmentary conduit end indicated at 50 (Fig. 4), under certain special conditions it may be desirable to provide the pressure section 35 with a multiple outlet somewhat after the manner of the arrangement shown by Fig. 3. In such case a pair of scroll wings instead of the single scroll structure 30, will be formed into plate 26 or constituted by separate scroll wing elements along the lines indicated by dotted lines, wherein the dual scroll wings are indicated respectively at 5| and 52. As is conventionally employed, the single or multiple outlet from the defroster or pressure section 35 as indicated by the port 53 (Fig. 4), may be provided with a suitable shutoff damper (not shown) so that, except during periods when defrosting air is required, such air may be either precluded from delivery or divertedinto the car'body space to augment the heating effect of the streams discharged through ports 44 and 45.

Proceeding now to a brief description of the blower wheel per se in the form illustrated, being the general form preferred, there is provided a conventional driving motor for the wheel indicated at 55, and suitably supported as by a frame 56 conveniently mounted below the plate 26 or if desired, extending directly to and deriving its support from the outer walls of the housing.

By preference the wheel proper, indicated generally at 60, is of a type characterized by an open inlet end adjacent the eye 24 of the hous- {5- ing, this part of the wheel being framed on or by an end ring 6|. The opposite end of the 'wheel is characterized and defined by a substantially imperiorate backplate 62, the plate 62 and ring 6| being crimped, riveted or otherwiseassembled to the plurality of blades 53 of the wheel. These latter may be individually assembled, or may be formed in a one-piece body element of the wheel,'as known in the art. The features of blade construction of the wheel form of themselves no part of the present invention, apart from the combination, and the preference that the backplate 62 be of substantially concavo-convex construction, being deeply cupped with the convex side toward the interior of the wheel. For completeness'it is noted that the wheel is provided with a hub 64 secured as. by set screw 65 to the shaft 66 of motor 55. The cupped conformity of the backplate 62 not only enables a substantial reduction in the depth or through dimension of the unit, by enabling the motor 55 to be virtually recessed in the wheel, but it should also be noted that the cupped type of wheel is believed to cooperate particularly well with the described arrangement of housing or casing sections and their respective scroll elements.

Centrifugal blower wheels per se of the general type described have heretofore been utilized, and it has been known heretofore to surround blower wheels of this order with a chamber or chambers from which air is discharged to the zones of utilization. However, many of the blower units and heater units for purposes comparable to the present, dispose a centrifugal wheel in a housing section of so-called plenum chambertype, without scroll elements. Also, in

the heater or blower units heretofore prevalently' utilizing, multiple discharge connections for providing a separate conduit connection for defrosting, have not, as is very important, arranged the pressure section in the manner described, with respect to the blower wheel. The imporpletely separated chambers about the wheel. It will be noted that the complete peripheral embrasure of the wheel by the partition 3| of the present structure, precludes any interchange of air between the chambered sections 34 and 35, thus minimizes short-circuiting" effects and turbulence, not only within, but between the different sections of the blowerv wheel housing.

It should be noted that there exists a definite structural advantage and a sturdy low cost assembly from the briefly described arrangement of assembling the scroll elements such as 35 and 31. It is a preference for this purpose that a series,- (shown as four) of transverse pins such as 10 be employed, for one purpose ofstructurally bridging and maintaining in rigid parellelism the plates 20 and 3|. This arrangement may also if desired, be utilized between plates 31 and 26. The ends of pins I0 may be provided with screw threads and nuts (not shown) or the opposite ends of the pins may be welded in place, or upset as by riveting. It has been that this assembly expedient markedly minimizes rattles and vibration of metal parts within the housing, such noises being extremely objectionable in the automotive trade.

The pins 10 as will best appear from Fig. l and Fig. 3, serve the further purpose of assembly supports or anchorages for the scroll wings such as 36 and 31. The latter are provided with projections, in this case horizontally arranged, apertured ear portions I i the apertures thereof being indicated at 12, and through the latter the pins 10 extend to hold the scroll wings securely in assembled position.

- for completeness that rotation' of the wheel 60 tance cannot be over-emphasized of disposing the v pressure section of the housing, where more than one section is formed in or by the housing, nearer the closed end of the wheel. Exhaustive experiments have indicated that, in case for example, the section be located nearest the inlet end of the wheel, the wheel in this zone will actually take in air rather than exhaust same. Definitely no substantial pressure effect is obtained with such an arrangement. Accordingly it is one of the important elements of the present invention that the pressure section be located.

have heretofore been made incident to dividing blower discharge streams from centrifugal wheels, to utilize only a partial or fragmentary intermediate partition. In such cases. it is ob vious that the air discharged by the blades of the 'wheel is permitted to recirculate Within the chamber about the wheel, and is many times shunted from one to the other of the income by motor 55 serves to draw the ambient air in' the present assembly downwardly through the core I3 where it becomes heated, and thence enters along the lines shown by the lower series of arrows, and passes through the eye ll of housing plate 20, thence into the eye of, and to the interior of the wheel. The air is thence deflected outwardly to a much greater extent in the lowermost portion of the wheel, partly due to the flared conformity of the cup portion 62 of the blackplate. This latter serves it is believed, to aid the wheel in expelling a substantial portion of its intake volume into the defroster section 35,. whence it is driven outwardly through the conduit 50 under an appreciable pressure, thence is moved optionally as to direction, either through the defroster lines and ports or to the space to be heated. It should be noted that the hollow or cupped formation 62 of the backplate of the wheel, while advantageous, may be replaced by a substantially planar or other suitable form'of backplate. It is however highly desirable that the casing portion arranged to receive and deliver air under a relatively higher pressure, be located around or near that portion of the blow-. er wheel which delivers the relatively greater volume of air. This is usually in a zone located at some moderate axial distance from the inlet zone or zones of the wheel. Thus it appears that the arrangement and adaptation of the wheel, and its relation to the casing, should, as in the illustrated embodiment, provide an effective abutment tending to deflect the air outwardly of the wheel in greatest volume in the zone of the air chamber which in the selected embodiment,

serves to supply the defroster equipment,

heater section 34. sembly, the air leaving the blade tips at relatively high velocity, strikes the interiorface of the scroll wing and is directed toward a proper outlet. In moving through the expanding chamber bounded by wheel surface and scroll, air velocity is reduced, the velocity energy (or kinetic) being changed thereby into pressure or potential energy capableof forcing air through ducts or against otherjoperating back-pressure obstacles in the zone beyond the casing discharge point. The innermost ends 40 and ll of the wings 36 and 31, or the corresponding inner end or ends J3 of scroll wing 30 or scroll wings 5| and 52, mark the start of an energy changing zone. These starting points separate or cut oif the high pressure region near the outlet, from the adjacent high velocity zone near the surface of the wheel, thus preventing undue recirculation through the "wheel from highest pressure to adjacent lowest pressure sections.

Although the invention has been. described by making a somewhat specific reference to a single exemplary embodiment of the invention for a particular usage, the detail of description is to be understood as given in an instructive and not in any limiting sense, many changes being possible in the parts and their arrangement withoutdeparting from the intendedscope of the invention as defined by the :claims hereunto appended. V 1

I claim as my invention: I

1. In a multiple-discharge air blower assembly, a casing structure, a centrifugal blower wheel rotatable in the casing structure and constituting the sole air displacement agency in the assembly, the' wheel being of a relatively deep or axiallyelongate type, including a back plate at one end and an open inlet' at. the opposite end of the wheel defined by an inlet ring portion thereof, a wall member of the casing structure transverse to thewheelaxis having an air inlet opening, the margins of which closely approach the inlet ring portion of the wheel so as effectivelyto constitute arunning air seal therewith, a secondary transverse wall member substantially coplanar with. the back margin of the wheel,

and having an opening of adiameter closely ap-- proximating that of the wheel and forming an efiective running air seal for the periphery of the wheel, an intermediate wall member forming, with those aforesaid, a pair of scroll housings collectively embracing substantially the full length and full-periphery of the blower wheel, the intermediate wall member having a wheel opening, the margins of which closely approach the bladed periphery of the wheel to minimize In both sections of the as--- passage of air between the scroll housings, the intermediate wall member being spaced substantially closer to the back than to the inlet of the wheel, whereby to constitute the rearmost scroll housing as a relatively high pressure air chamber, and the scroll housing nearest the inlet end as a relatively lower pressure chamber,

a scroll element in each scroll housing, means formed at least in part by the wall members and casing structure, constituting a tangential air delivery passage from each scroll housing, and means for driving the blower wheel.

2. In an air blower assembly for displacement of air streams at different pressures by means of a single centrifugal blower, a casing structure, a centrifugal blower wheel rotatable in the casing structure and constituting the sole air displacement agency of the assembly, the wheel being of a relatively deep type, including an inwardly cupped back plate, and provided with an air inlet opening in its end opposite the back plate and further including a peripheral inlet ring portion, a wall member of the casing structure transverse to the wheel axis and provided with an air inlet opening the margins of which closely approach the inlet ring of the wheel so as effectively to constitute a running air seal therewith, a secondary transverse wall member substantially coplanar with the back margins of the wheel, and provided with a circular air opening of a diameter closely approximating that of the wheel and forming an e'ifective running air seal for the rear peripheral portion of the wheel, an intermediate wall member forming with those aforesaid a pair of scroll housings collectively embracing substantially the full length and full periphery of the wheel, the intermediate wall member having a wheel opening the margins of which closely approach the bladed periphery of the wheel to minimize passage of air between the 'scrollhousings, the intermediate wall member being'substantially planar and being spaced forwardly of the rear peripheral margin of the wheel a distance of the order of one-third the bladed length of the wheel, whereby to constitute the rearmost scroll housing as a relatively shallow, high pressure air chamber, and the scroll housing nearest the wheel inlet as a chamber of greater volume adapted to confine and discharge air at a lower pressure, a scroll element in each scroll housing, means coacting with the scroll elements, and formed at least in part by the wall members and easing structure, constitilting a tangential air delivery passage from each scroll housing, and means for rotating the blower wheel.

EDMOND BRYAN WILLIAMS. 

